“There’s a treasure trove of value to be found here. We’re talking about things like full workstation class user experience with high-performance 3D graphics, enhanced abilities to access virtual desktops from any HTML5-capable web browser, a beautiful new iOS 7 client, as well as a completely rewritten Windows client with support for Windows 8.1. As if all of that weren’t enough already—we’re providing a brand new way to use Horizon View in Desktop-as-a-Service deployments using View Direct Connect. And one more thing: support for deploying Windows Server 2008 as a desktop.”

Horizon View 5.1 introduced VCAI as a Tech Preview feature that enabled customers to try VCAI with partner storage systems that support VAAI NAS primitives. Horizon View 5.3 introduces support for VCAI with select partner storage technologies (listed in question 2 below). VCAI leverages capabilities of VMware vSphere as well as some of the NAS storage arrays that have vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI) NAS native snapshot capability. This feature enables customers to offload the creation of linked clones to the storage array. It is used in conjunction with linked-clone desktop pools and NFS datastores that are exported by NAS storage arrays.

2. Which partner storage technologies support VCAI?

As of the Horizon View 5.3 release date, the following partner storage technologies support VCAI.

Vendor

Storage

Firmware*

Hitatchi Data Systems (HDS)

Hitatchi NAS 4000 Series

v11.x and later

*Vendors expect VCAI to work on these and later firmware versions.

3. What is the support model for VCAI on Horizon View?

The VCAI feature in Horizon View is supported only on specific storage arrays from certain vendors (listed in question 2 above). The VMware Global Support Services (GSS) organization provides joint customer support for this feature on those arrays only.

“

Therefore, unless you are running at Hitatchi NAS 4000 Series, put the breaks on! Althrough, I am sure we will see more storage support soon.